PHAGWARA: While election schedule for eight municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils has been announced, elections for Phagwara municipal corporation will be held later after several deficiencies were found in the voters’ list. A case has been registered against a government employee who manipulated settlement of objections and complaints about voters’ lists.
However, it is not yet clear at whose behest he was working.
The elections to Phagwara MC have been withheld after sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Amit Sareen wrote to state election commissioner about the defects in the voters’ lists. Sareen, who joined less than a month ago on December 19, said objections about voters’ lists were settled till December 23 and after their online entry, lists were printed. He said the state election commissioner, after final electoral rolls were published on January 6, had several anomalies brought to his notice by the political parties.
He revealed that during investigation it came out that Punjab State Power Coporation Limited (PSPCL) employee Sandeep Singh, who was working in the election branch and had the access to the system, manipulated entries of hundreds of objections due to which out of 1,800 objections only 400 could be resolved.
He also pointed out that 800 votes were shifted to other wards to benefit the political parties. SDM Sareen argued that it was imperative to prepare the electoral rolls afresh to ensure transparency in elections. Meanwhile, clerk Sandeep Singh has been booked under sections 409, 477 A, 120 B of IPC and 13(1) of Prevention of Corruption Act.